Welcome this week to WrestleArea of the United States, and Sports
Entertainer Online of the UK, which both now carry AS I SEE IT.

This week, more on Barry Blaustein's "Beyond The Mat"
and the actions of the World Wrestling Federation...

It seems that Vince McMahon has a conveniently very short memory.

It wasn't that long ago that Vince McMahon complained (with
justification) about the actions of the Parents Television Council in terms of their
attempts to take the WWF Smackdown show off of the air by targeting sponsors of the
program.

Wrestling Fans Against Censorship, a collaborative effort of
PWBTS, Strictly ECW and Piledriver Press, as well as 200 other websites, spoke out against
the actions being taken by Parents Television Council, and against the participation of
many major retail and service companies in a Marketplace program that provided funding for
the PTC's political efforts.

But now with the national premiere of Beyond The Mat, Vince
McMahon has engaged in exactly the same behavior that he condemned only months before.

As reported here and all over the Internet last week, Vince
McMahon pulled pre-paid advertising of Beyond The Mat from his show purchased by Lions
Gate Films, a division of Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, leading up to the film's
March 17th release. The first commercial, scheduled to air on USA on Monday, February 28,
was abruptly pulled by the WWF that day. This timing was not so coincidental, after Barry
Blaustein, Ron Howard's Imagine Studios and Lions Gate Entertainment refused to sell
Beyond The Mat to the World Wrestling Federation, despite frequent offers over a three
year period from Vince McMahon.

Further, Vince McMahon strongarmed UPN and USA Networks to pull
such advertising from network programs, including Pacific Blue and La Femme Nikita.
McMahon is also using the widely-reported negotiations with CBS and TNN regarding the
relocation of World Wrestling Federation programming as leverage against USA Networks and
UPN in these demands to pull this pre-paid advertising.

Mark Urman, co-president of Lions' Gate Films, adds "Without
notice or explanation, the WWF has dealt a serious blow to our campaign for Beyond The
Mat. Vince McMahon, head of the WWF, has personally put this obstacle in our path. Mr.
McMahon has decided that he doesn't like our film so now he wants to prevent wrestling
fans nationwide, who have so far embraced the film, from finding out about it."

McMahon appears prominently in BEYOND THE MAT, and is featured in
Lions Gate's TV spots. Lions Gate offered yesterday to modify the commercial to eliminate
the shots of McMahon but were told the WWF wouldn't accept any advertisements of any sort
for the film.

As I said in last week's AS I SEE IT column:

"Tom Ortenberg said 'Vince McMahon spent three years
trying to buy the movie, and when he couldn't get it, he got angry....We have signed
contracts with the WWF, and they are not living up to the agreement. We are now exploring
our legal options to counteract this outrageous act.'

In response, Jim Byrne, WWF Senior Vice President of Marketing
said: 'We do not permit third-party wrestling product to be advertised in the body of our
shows. It creates confusion.'

Was it confusion? Or a change of heart once Vince McMahon saw
the final print of Beyond The Mat?

One has to wonder if McMahon felt that some of the realities
of wrestling depicted in the movie were best left hidden, such as the horrified reactionby
the Foley family to Mick Foley's senseless beating at Royal Rumble 1999; or the reminder
through Aurelian Smith, (a former WWF employee) of the tragic toll in shortened and
shattered lives that drug and alcohol use has inflicted on the professional wrestling
industry and the families of those within it. One can reasonably assume that neither
likely made Vince McMahon very happy.

Does the fact that a movie shows the fact that the
increasingly violent style within wrestling has a very human cost disturb Vince McMahon?

Does McMahon hate the fact that the very real, very human,
cost of substance abuse is depicted? Particularly since, according to Canada's
SLAMWrestling.com, McMahon is paying $75,000 for Davey Boy Smith's drug rehabilitation
because of Smith's addiction to morphine, painkillers, somas, and sleeping pills?

If that is why Beyond The Mat bothers Vince McMahon, too
damned bad.

No matter whether or not Vince McMahon runs the most
successful entertainment company of its type in North America, if not the world, he needs
to be reminded that he still can't script reality, no matter now hard he tries."

All of this casts a very different light on the publicly expressed
and storyline high regard of the WWF toward Mick Foley. Vince McMahon comes across as a
blatant hypocrite for his actions toward Barry Blaustein given what he went through
himself only months before with the Parents Television Council, and what he claims he
feels about Mick Foley as a performer and as a person.

What Vince McMahon was interested in wasn't showing the wrestling
business, or in showing the human sides of Mick Foley. What he was apparently was
interested was control. For three years, Vince McMahon apparently tried to convince Ron
Howard's Imagine Studios and Lions Gate to let him invest in the film. When they refused,
Vince McMahon pulled this power play at the last possible instant.

Just as many of you sent hundreds and hundreds of e-mails to the
Parents Television Council and their sponsors in defense of the WWF and all other
wrestling companies when they were being threatened by the PTC's lobbying actions, to a
degree that many sponsors screamed at PWBTS and Wrestling Fans Against Censorship to stop.
Now it's time to raise just as much hell AT the WWF for engaging in exactly the same
actions in attempting to censor this excellent motion picture.

The e-mail address ordinarily given for those who want to comment
on Monday Night RAW, Sunday Night Heat, SuperStars, or LiveWire, is wwf@usanetwork.com. This address may or may not be
operational at this time, as those supporting Barry Blaustein had filled the mailbox as of
earlier this week.

If that address is not available, please sent messages expressing
your concerns to the following e-mail addresses: